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Ever since Valve released the Axtinguisher, weapon combos have become a huge part of Team Fortress 2. From the Sandman/Cleaver to the Jarate/Bushwacka, Valve has released a number of weapons obviously designed to go together, and for that reason they do so very well. But sometimes there are weapons whose synergies are not so obvious, who were clearly built for widely different roles, and yet somehow they can combine to create a lethal combo to the keen player who can see untapped potential. Here are a few I’ve discovered throughout the years. 1. Beggars Bazooka / Righteous Bison The Beggar’s… [Continue Reading]
Let’s face it: The new Soda Popper is pretty sweet. The new movement mechanic activated from hype that causes the Scout to have up to 5 jumps after getting off the ground has a far better purpose than farming situational mini-crits. It still does good damage without the mini-crits. I believe the weapon was buffed rather than nerfed, since there still isn’t a damage penalty that doesn’t allow you to land two good meatshots identical to the Scattergun’s damage. But besides that, what we’re overlooking right now is how it affects the old Popper-Cola Combo (Soda Popper + Crit-a-Cola of… [Continue Reading]
Sniping’s a good job indeed, but there are people who really want to avoid all that polite and efficient bussiness and bludgeon you to death with a golf trophy. Wankers. Then you have to sigh, take your favourite oversized knife and stick it to their bodies until they are no more. Here we are again, 3rd attempt to jam all the useful melee information in your brains. This time we’ll cover Sniper’s melees. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) there aren’t many Sniper melees… Let’s check them anyways. Your stock kukri is geniously named Kukri. As always, its reskins are Frying Pan, Conscientious Objector, Freedom Staff,… [Continue Reading]
Check out that glorious display of health and ammo next to that high-tier cosmetic on the table. Want to show all your teammates this secret treat?
Whenever I play trade_portal2_beta5 (an increasingly common map on the trade servers I frequent) this is often my goal as I pass the time; to get a teleporter over there. Here’s how.
You can’t find good Melee-only servers anymore. Medieval Mode took out most of those, and the removal of Sudden Death from default removed the times it happens on normal servers. But every so often, a server goes melee only, and I remember how fun it can be. Everything is very simple; just you and your bludgeoning weapon of choice. Here are some tips for fighting melee only.
(Note: If it’s one of those servers that allows the booties and shields but literally no other non-melee weapons, my tip is to leave the server. So-called “melee-only” servers that do that can go die in a fire.)
SPUFblog really likes Medieval Mode. You have plenty of evidence. Even if the gamemode itself is not the most popular one, it is still enough popular that it gets played regularly, and you can pretty much always find a good server where to play (I unluckily can’t say the same for Arena…). And this means you pretty much always have a chance to play the subclass we’re talking about today: The Caberdemo! Or the Handgrenade demo. Caberknight? Democaber? It’s not played that often, and thus people usually just refer to it as “That Demo who is just trying to be annoying”. But the Caberdemo… [Continue Reading]
So. It’s been a long time since July 10th, when this update arrived. With it, Valve sought to rebalance some common staples of TF2 play, and bring some new weapons to the forefront. In those five months… what’s changed? Has Valve done what it set out to do? Did they change the face of public servers forever with their weapon balance?
Well… No.
Aabicus: I think it’s a cool idea, as I always like further ability to customize. Unfortunately, I’m such a stickler there aren’t many paints I use personally. I’ve got a real thing for White paint, I find it looks good on a lot of loadouts. Other than that very little of my stuff is painted. Instead, I find myself drawn to the default colors of most cosmetics. But I don’t discriminate based on garish hues. As a matter of fact, I’m more likely to heal those people and trust them because they’ve shelled out the dosh for paint and probably… [Continue Reading]
Scorched earth is a tactic used by militaries where the main goal is to destroy everything useful for the enemy while retreating or advancing (destroying their manufactories, farms, oil fields and stuff like that). If you have participated in kindergarten gang wars, you will spot the similarity with the real thing – if you managed to win a small tackle-fight against your little enemies in their own lair built of wooden bricks, chairs and clothing – you totally wrecked their camp afterwards, victoriously, so they would have to build everything from scratch. You were also a terrible person, but whatever. Scorched Earth is also a fun little game with artillery tanks shooting at each other, but most importantly, it shares a similar name with one of the weapons in TF2 – the Scorch Shot.
Just before the holiday season, Valve shipped some new crates. There is a particular one I’ve looked forward to the most. Crate #77. Not only do you get a chance to unbox the strange Grenade Launcher again (hardcore traders fainting, poor people throwing hands in the air and praising the Lord), you can also get the strange Scorch Shot! I also had the joy of unboxing it right away with my first crate drop, just like I wanted. I could finally use Scorch Shot and force other people to see my kill counter on it when I kill them to death!
Why don’t people use the Scorch Shot more? Because they hate having fun! Well, it deals 50% less damage. Instead of regular flare’s 30 damage, you deal 15 damage. Yes, I know, people want to kill their enemies faster? Pfffft. It is way funnier to watch your enemies burn slow if you’re a Pyro. Things people do when on fire… ehhhh… It also won’t critically wound people on fire like Flare Gun does, but honestly, who cares? I can bounce people all over the map!
For those of you who don’t know this game mode, Jailbreak is a psychological experiment disguised as a TF2 game. There are no respawns, and it requires custom specialized maps designed for the mode. Most of the server plays as RED, and begins the round drained of all ammo and clip. The BLU team consists of a few guards and a Warden, who have allcrits. The Warden must order the prisoners around, using his guards’ superior firepower to enforce control, and get them to participate in mini-games, where the players who lose the mini-games often die. When a single RED player is left, they are considered to have won the round, and are granted a “last request”, which carries over to the next round (for example, “next round we play the Soccer mini-game,” “next round I want the freedom to run around and ignore this song and dance,” or “right now I want all the guards to play Nine Square until they’re dead.” That’s it, there’s not much to the game.
UNLESS the prisoners decide to rebel. If anyone can survive long enough to reach the armory, they can refill their ammunition and get working weapons again. If the rebelling RED players can kill all the BLU players, they win in a much more satisfying way.
After a decent amount of playing this mode a few months ago, I’ve found some strategies that work pretty well.